Given his health and near complete inexperience, Brackman's about 3x as iffy as Inoa. It makes no sense.

I don't agree. If Brackman rebounds from not so risky elbow surgery, he's a project, but he's still a better bet than a 16 year old IMO.

I'd like to have them both.

I'd like to have them both.

Sure, but I'd rather the Yanks sign someone they think is worth the money they spend. The Yanks have a pretty good track record with international signings, I'm willing to trust them if they decided this guy was not worth 4 mil.

The Yanks have a pretty good track record with international signings

They do?

Yes...um...please point out where Cashman and the Yankees have made a public issue of this or implied sleaziness. Better yet, please show me proof of the Yankees supposed heated involvement in the Inoa "sweepstakes"...

There have been numerous vague, unsubstantiated internet rumors. OK, all of them may have started with one rumor.

What are you talking about JC? Wouldn't you rather have Kei Igawa than 12 Michael Inoas?

They do?

Bernie, Posada, Mo, Cano, Melky, El Duque, Soriano, Veras and some of the guys on the farm (Montero, Tabata (yes, I know he sucks now), Betances, Aceves, Cervilli?) seems like a pretty good haul from foreign free agents (Non-Japan division) over the last 20 years.

Ramiro Mendoza too.

No way Brackman at 21 (22 in December) is a worse prospect than Inoa just because of TJ surgery.

Ahh - AB is Andrew Brackman. That's hysterical! A shame Wang couldn't crack the dream rotation; he's probably a 30% shot to have a better career than all five of those guys. (Sure, I'd rather have Chamerlain going forward, but Wang has a decent head start on Joba, and the others have only an outside chance of catching him at this point).

Anway, Brackman's a worse prospect than Inoa because he isn't a very good pitcher and is five and a half years older. His track record at NC State was underwhelming, and he's yet to throw a professional inning. Inoa compares favorably in terms of talent level at the time of signing with Neftali Feliz and Felix Hernandez, who are two of the most recent high profile international free agent pitchers.

Betences was drafted out of Washington Heights and Jose Veras is a minor league vet who was originally signed with Tampa and has bounced around the minors with Tampa, Texas and NY as a big-body, big-stuff project for about damn ever. I remember watching him in AAA in, 03 or something.

There have been numerous vague, unsubstantiated internet rumors. OK, all of them may have started with one rumor.

Yeah, I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of the situation being superior.

8 guys over 20 years, 1 of whom flamed out in NY, not counting the scads of failures and misses? Do you think that adequately reflects a good int'l signing record?

Dellin Betances went to high school in Brooklyn, by the way.

And before more people joke about my username, the point of it is and has always been to serve as a cautionary tale when it comes to prospects.

Even though it sounds retarded I think Soriano was technically signed out of Japan. The way I remember the story was that a Japanese team signed him, had him sit around their version of a minor league academy for a year and he hated it so he got out of Japan and somehow signed on with the Yankees.

you seem to be confusing my comment with NJASDJDH's alias.

In any case, what exactly are you basing your evaluation of Inoa's talent on? Raw stuff? Because that's precisely the same thing that Brackman has.... (I do suggest you read this piece, though http://www.nomaas.org/brackman2.html )

113, crap. I really wanted to say Brooklyn but I kept thinking about all of the other prominent Dominican players (like Manny being Manny) to come out of Washington Heights so I went with that. Good catch.

I'm going to go on the record here as having good feelings about Mr Brackman's professional chances. His college career was not half as bad as it was made out to be (one great year, one bad year, one year that was good 'til he got hurt) and he really does have immense stuff. I do have some worries about ginormous pitchers but Brackman is a great athlete with a great arm. I think he will be fine. He is exactly the kind of guy that will go disliked by the stat crowd despite his skills and have a fine career.

I mean. I might be totally wrong, but I feel good about him.. and I'm no Yanks fan

113, crap. I really wanted to say Brooklyn but I kept thinking about all of the other prominent Dominican players (like Manny being Manny) to come out of Washington Heights so I went with that. Good catch.

Red Sox signee and now Texas prospect Engel Beltre is from the Bronx, but moved down to the DR when he was 14 or 15 so he could make good on that 16-year old international signing payday. That's smarts.

Do you think that adequately reflects a good int'l signing record?

Well, some of those guys are huge talents, I left out guys like Rivera, Jimenez, Marte, and Brazoban (sp?) who went on to be useful on other teams. The Yanks only source of young talent since they drafted Nick Johnson has been the international draft. I believe they've done poorly (probably in the 15-25 range) in terms of developing young talent that has played at the big league level over the last 8 years or so, and all of that talent (except for Brad Halsey and Marcus Thames) has come from international signings. I don't really know how that stacks up against other Major League clubs, but I would be surprised if it didn't add up to above average production from the international signings. I very well could be wrong, but if all of the Yankee talent comes from the international market and nothing comes from the draft (until Hughes and Joba), and their overall talent development over say the last decade is a bit below average (maybe it's worse than I'm giving it credit for), I would guess their international signings have been good to balance out the abominable draft performance.

My bad about Betances, and yeah, I remembered Soriano played in Japan, but he ducked out of his contract and was signed outside of Japanese baseball rules (or something like that) and so I counted him as a non-Japanese signing.

News from the Dallas Morning Snooze Ranger blog.

Interestingly enough, it appears that the A's didn't make the high offer for Inoa - the Rangers did. However, Inoa decided he liked the A's $4+M more than the Rangers' $5+M.

(Sorry for resurrecting a dead thread - just thought this was interesting news.)

Interestingly enough, it appears that the A's didn't make the high offer for Inoa - the Rangers did. However, Inoa decided he liked the A's $4+M more than the Rangers' $5+M.

This is interesting. Thanks for the link.

From ESPN, by way of A's Nation:

Inoa and his parents turned down more lucrative offers from the Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers due to Oakland's positive results developing young pitchers. The Reds offered a $5 million signing bonus and a major league contract, while the Rangers offered $5.2 million, according to Inoa.

"After careful thought, my parents and I decided that Oakland has a better pitcher development program, and that will be more important for my career in the long haul," said Inoa, who became eligible to sign with any major league ballclub on Tuesday at the strike of midnight.

The A's made a big push for this kid. Beane went down there, Owens went down there, Forst went down there and even Lew Wolff did. I wonder if the family/advisers were impressed by that as well.